Living Among The Stars

Brief: honour the history of the building while updating the home to befit a modern family

The Holmby Hills district of LA is an extremely affluent area famed for its luxury homes, and with more than its fair share of celebrities stretching back for decades. But its further reaching history is equally as rich, and one particular home, originally designed by renowned architect George Washington Smith in 1926, was actually designed in an Andalusian and Italian fusion style.

Alongside architect Marc Appleton, interior designer Windsor Smith had a real challenge on her hands when asked by the new family owners to redesign the space. Not least because, shortly after purchase, the family were offered the rare opportunity to buy the home next door as well which once belonged to one of the most popular film stars of the 50s and 60s, Gregory Peck.

The new, now consolidated home for the family soon afforded them a tennis court, swimming pool and even a log cabin on the seven acre site. Windsor explains that her goal was to honour the history of the building, from its more humble beginnings to the perhaps more glamorous nature of its later incarnations and owners. She also wanted to update the space in a way that would befit a thoroughly modern family, but also to provide a space for an impressive collection of contemporary art.